Query Approved

I think you should start with figuring out your use case. How much time will you spend on city steets in traffic and on long open highways. Ninja 250 should be marginally better for highways, although neither bike is an exceptional tourer. In cities, the small, lightweight and short-geared 390 should be miles above the Ninja.

Then there is a concern of a demo bike. There is no way of knowing how close to perfect the bike is. If it were me putting the money down for either of those bikes, it will have to be a 390 Duke.

thanks fiend ..... lets see if v can make that west coast ride

ninja 250 ( 32-33hp ) vs duke 390 ( 44-45 hp )
demo ( never know ) vs duke 390 ( still on papers and spied . nothing clear as of now )
spares ( bloody expensive ) vs duke ( am sure will be cheaper ) compared to ninja.
touring n250( no go-- high revving machine ) vs duke ( no go- again high revving machine )
2.25 vs 2.2 - 2.4 speculated ( you will get new and ABS coming as well )
better on highway ( faired ) vs killer in city ( will be super fast and light weight and a amazing handler.. )
FE - 30 ( heard.. not sure ) vs 26-30 ( assuming again not sure )


again you never know whats with the demo bike and ninja as far as i know.. meter are analogue.. whether its 800 or 8000.. you never know..

i would suggest buy a new duke else look for a pre-owned ninja rather than a demo.. hope you know how honest ASS people are about figures... (specifically in India )


important part... you dont buy a machine and then decide how to use it.. you decide first whats the purpose and need and requirements
and then buy accordingly..

if its just for the poser value.. then both the machines are equally good..
first jot down the requirements and needs and usage and buy accordingly...

duke 390 will kill the n250 even n300 in every aspect besides being faired... (personal opinion )

Seems something fishy...even after standard depreciation, a used N250 would fetch more than that. Why are they selling a new Demo bike at dirt-cheap?

It's very obvious - it wouldn't have been run-in with even the slightest care. From day one, people would have ripped it and lugged it like crazy during test drives. And who knows, a couple of major issues (or potential issues) hidden away?

I certainly wouldn't want one. I'd rather buy a year-old N250 owned by a single owner and maintained with care.

Depends on your usage. If you are more of a street/city rider, you wouldn't have to spend on the ninja, the duke 390 will be the most appropriate ride. But if you plan on going on tours or ride on the highway, then I suggest the Ninja. If I were to choose between the two, I would go for the Ninja if its well maintained and in proper condition.
Duke 390 will not be a short geared bike like the 200. Its gearing is normal.

Do we know that for sure(i.e. is that specification officially out yet)? The duke 390 Europe page only lists secondary gear ratio which is identical to that of duke 200.

Although if it is "normally" geared that would be a huge disappointment for me, personally. I'd probably like to drop a couple of teeth from the front sprocket to sort-of make up for it.

Non faired bikes are always unstable at certain high speed compare to it's faired siblings.

If you get a really good used ninja then no worries, else it will rip you part.

Duke is new and still needs to conquer the market, with it's presence and maintenance. Initial lot of Bajaj are likely to have some or the other issues.
I would recommend Ninja here!

Regarding high speed stability, well the D390 is going to be lightweight and without those fairings and windshields, its stability will be unpredictable. Even if it tops out on 150+ks, its going to be one hell of a job to maintain that pace since the windblast will simply be too much.
I see that you have seen the specification after they had made some changes, but in the older version of the website, they put up the entire specification(including both primary and secondary) and from what I remember it surely wouldn't be as short geared as the D200. So it would be revving just a little lesser(not much, but still less) than the Duke 200.

Buy the ninja for now, enjoy it as much as you can then sell it and get the 390 when its launched :P

Just sayin...

I'm a weekend rider, seldom go on tours which has nothing more than 250-260kms per day. I'm changing my ninja with the new 390 just for the reason that the duke's more fun to ride, moreover the 42bhp is way beyond what my ninja run with right now

If your more into high speed cruising- It's Ninja. For city riding- the Duke will satisfy your hunger more.

Yea but wouldn't it be prudent to wait till the New duke's been fully tested?

I wonder how much power the 390 will have on the wheel though... hmmm

I'll still be effectively faster in acceleration to the Ninja because of it's less weight. If it was the new Ninja 300 in question here I would have though twice, but the current one is same as any other 200NS, duke 200 or CBR or ZMR in terms of accelaration till it goes beyong 7K rpm. I'm not blaming the machine, I'm just not satisfied with what it has to offer

In principal I would stay away from a demo bike. Apart from that first you have to decide what kind of bike you want then think about the deal. I went to Leh on the Duke and quite enjoyed it and I don't find it to be unstable even @120kmph. Though it's not very comfortable and a bit of a pain at low speeds, same with the Ninja. Between Duke390 and Ninja250 I will always pick the duke.